Hyperfocus
by Emogarg
Summary: Writing prompt from an rp forum. OC character has Legilimency and reveals what their life is like. Eleanor is ready to do just that.


Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Harry Potter Universe, only the character in this story is mine. It was created for Illvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry rp forum about an OC able to do Legilimency.

When Eleanor was seven, she lost her parents. They didn't die, they were taken away. She was not allowed to join them. That was when her time being raised by the man she called Uncle Sid began.

"We are going to try things until we find what you're good at. Everyone is good at something. Even a bean like you. " He'd told her. She believed him, as there was so much in the world. People had to have a talent in something?

It was a long process. Before she even had her wand, she tried different skills in magic. Potions, metamorphing, herbology, runes. Anything that didn't require a wand that she could just have a gift and not know , they had tried. Finally they found it: Legilimency. It wasn't clear and at first she was certain it was her imagination. She would focus on someone's face, and let her mind drift. Like a day dream pictures, sometimes still sometimes moving appeared.

You would think if you could see into someone's mind it would be easy. Pictures can be very misleading though. There is no emotion or intent in just a picture. She couldn't go back to safe the image to study in her mind. It was always quick, a flash.

Things were usually faded save for the center subject matter. She realized in retrospection that was how memories were. She could remember the men who came for her parents and the day they took them. But in memory, she didn't remember the faces or the way her house looked. It was other memories coming together like a puzzle to fill in the blanks. It was done without her realization. Thus, she learned to not truly rely on her ability.

The more practice, the more she learned she had to practice on other things. She had to read faces to know their mood when the image appeared. People could think in sarcasm too, surprisingly enough. People could remember something perfectly and the memory would be false. Before she gained her ability, Eleanor would never in a million years have guessed how nearly useless being a mind reader could be. She found uses for it though. In dueling , people tended to picture what they wanted to happen just before it happened. Sometimes though, their spells failed, the idiots would do the wrong one or just change their mind in an instant. And that's for the dumb people.

Smart people were a pain in the ass to read. They liked to think in words. You can't see words. You can see markings that represent the words. When they flash though for her, it is scribble, illegible. Completely useless. Emotions can be useless too. People can somethings flash the most cliché stuff when they are happy. Like sunny days or rainy days can mean the same thing for different people. Faces that she doesn't recognize. Of course, all of this was fine, if not a bit annoying for her if it wasn't for one thing.

It was hard to turn off. She had to avoid eyes to completely turn it off. She didn't want to see into minds sometimes. Could anyone realize how much she hated high school boys by the time she was fourteen? They so often pictured girls in the most awkward positions in their minds. It was embarrassing. It was a small gift she wasn't beautiful. She was tall and narrow in every way, tomboyish to a fault. It kept those thoughts out of their heads though, usually. She also had to deal with crazy. People would get angry and imagine all sorts of horrible ideas against the person or thing that slighted them. Pathetic. She knew real troubles and horrors, so she didn't need to be reminded.

Eleanor was grateful to be good at something. Among the other training she did at home, so she could continue her uncle's work, she knew it would one day be useful. At the same time, she wondered why she couldn't have been a metamorphagus. It would have been more awesome to be pretty and clueless.


End file.
